10 Reasons You're still broke

[ilovemk76]

We will never own a 27 year old car or beater. Why? Safety. New cars have great safety built in. Crumple zones, front air bags, curtain airbags, side impact panels

I know a person who bragged about his old car that he kept fixing. He had an accident that put him into a coma. The other driver walked away because he had a new and safe car. He now says he wished he had bought that new(er) car he could afford.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Long-time lurker, first time poster...

To our family its all about balance. Both my wife and I lost our parents very early and shockingly no one mentioned how great at keeping a budget they were or how they admired them for keeping cars 10+ years at their funerals. What struck me was the number of people that kinda chuckled and told me a story about a night out with my Dad or a fishing trip they took.

When I die I want to ensure that I lived my life to the fullest - That I got to see everything I possibly could. I want my kids to be taken care of, but I also don’t want to be eating ramen so I can pad their inheritance. We have a very healthy retirement account but honestly I don’t live for tomorrow. I could be hit by a bus on the way to lunch.

agree

 

[wdw4rfam]

We will never own a 27 year old car or beater. Why? Safety. New cars have great safety built in. Crumple zones, front air bags, curtain airbags, side impact panels

I know a person who bragged about his old car that he kept fixing. He had an accident that put him into a coma. The other driver walked away because he had a new and safe car. He now says he wished he had bought that new(er) car he could afford.

I agree. I had a 5 YO. Kia van that was cheaper than the other options when I bought it new, but on the way to Florida, broke down because it was RUSTED under the entire car. My coolant lines rusted through, the mechanic told me my brake lines were just about there too, as well as much of my van, at 5 years old, 40,000 miles!!! We came home and bought a new town and country. It has more airbags than I can count, as well as other safety options. It wasn't cheap, but I will drive it until it is no longer reliable. I refuse to drive a car that could break down on me and leave us in the middle of nowhere again. I will cut corners somewhere else.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I will raise you one. Our neighbors bought a very expensive luxury SUV - actually, I believe they leased it, which is a financial hole of its own. They did it while looking for a new house. So, just over a month later they moved into a unit in our building that allows the husband who was supposed to drive this thing to bike to work (and that was one of the top reasons they bought the condo!). So, now he bikes to work while the SUV sits in the garage. They may be able to afford the vehicle, but what a waste of money!

Meh, I'd rather have an expensive vehicle in my garage when I need it than to be running it into the ground on a long commute.

 

[kkmcan]

We aren't broke. In fact I think we are pretty good money managers. We could cut back on vacations and save more but we already save a huge chunk every month for retirement and another chunk to pad our emergency savings. Dh works 2 jobs that take up his entire week plus he takes Overtime whenever he is offered it. I sell fulltime on ebay. Sometimes it feels like we rarely see each other so we do need our vacations. It is important family time and re-charge time. Our vaca's are usually in the $1000-$2000 range but we have had a couple over the last 10 years that were in the $3000-$5000.

We drive a 2002 Nissan Xterra (bought used off my parents), 2009 Nissan Altima bought new with 300 miles on it in 2009 for $18K. 2 weeks ago we bought a used 2007 Nissan Versa for dd17 for $5000 cash. We are a Nisssan family for sure!

Our kids are not in any traveling sports teams or dance etc. They do play sports at their high school but that's minimal amounts of money.. Our dd works at the local movie theater and pays for all of her wants and some of her needs. She is a great saver too! Hasn't spent any of her paychecks in a year except to buy herself a $250 guitar.

I can't think of one thing that really drains us financially other than car and home and pool maintenance. We always are working on fixing or replacing something. Our home is 10 years old now, pool is 8 years so these things are starting to need new parts.

We don't have any expensive hobbies and we have 1 dog who hasn't cost us too much over the years. She is 10 yrs old and doing great.

 

[SEA333]

We will never own a 27 year old car or beater. Why? Safety. New cars have great safety built in. Crumple zones, front air bags, curtain airbags, side impact panels

I know a person who bragged about his old car that he kept fixing. He had an accident that put him into a coma. The other driver walked away because he had a new and safe car. He now says he wished he had bought that new(er) car he could afford.

I hear you, but also have to say that we are contemplating keeping our '97 GMC Jimmy for DS14 in a few years because that thing is a TANK. The whole body is steel, I think, or at least some sort of heavy metal material. Much more sturdy than the light fiberglass bodies on our newer cars. It has a driver airbag, but to be honest, I've never owned a side curtain airbag vehicle, and I'm pretty sure my Jimmy would win against a brand new compact, probably a midsize, and maybe even against our small suv.

 

[ilovemk76]

I hear you, but also have to say that we are contemplating keeping our '97 GMC Jimmy for DS14 in a few years because that thing is a TANK. The whole body is steel, I think, or at least some sort of heavy metal material. Much more sturdy than the light fiberglass bodies on our newer cars. It has a driver airbag, but to be honest, I've never owned a side curtain airbag vehicle, and I'm pretty sure my Jimmy would win against a brand new compact, probably a midsize, and maybe even against our small suv.

The guy I referenced felt the same way about his truck. The accident proved him wrong.

 

[Planogirl]

It would depend on the year of the truck. Some of the older vehicles are very solidly built and show little damage when hit while some not quite as old seem to disintegrate if you so much as tap on them. I'd certainly rather drive a 60's "boat" for safety than some of the tiny cars I see tooling around. Not that we do, our cars are about 10 years old and need to be replaced.

 

[SEA333]

The guy I referenced felt the same way about his truck. The accident proved him wrong.

There's always exceptions either way, I get it. My brother almost died in a crash in his brand new state of the art air bag cushioned car two years ago.

Still considering it. A tree can fall on me as I walk down the street, too - which in my "Tree City USA" suburb of Chicago wouldn't be impossible to imagine - but I'd still walk down the street outside of my bubble wrap.

 

[havaneselover]

I'll likely be "broke" for the next 13 years (when my DS should graduate from college). I have an IRA and contribute 10% (want to get up to 15%+), my kids have tuition paid for (but I'm working on room and board), a decent amount in savings, and I have a modest mortgage. My ex pays for after school/summer child care and health insurance for the kids but I cover everything else. I took eight years off of working (and missed my opportunity to obtain a professional degree) to raise my children and am in a so-so job market for what I do. I'm learning to be content. We do a vacation every other year or so plus vacations to the grandparents. It is what it is. I'm building my ant farm one grain of sand at a time. I'm still far better off than most people in this world, so I try to stay positive. It can be hard though because I live in a neighborhood where the average income is probably 3x what mine is.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

The guy I referenced felt the same way about his truck. The accident proved him wrong.

There's a YouTube video somewhere of GM crashing a full size 1959 Impala into a late model Malibu ('09 IIRC), and that newer car destroyed the older one. Aside from crumple zones, newer cars are actually heavier than older ones. New trucks have gotten so heavy that the truck pulls at the county fairs have had to redo all their weight classes. The newer trucks were over the limit even without any added weight.


All that said, a '97 is a fairly modern vehicle with air bags & crumple zones built in. Not as advanced as a current car, but way better than a 70's or 80's model.

 

[KalamityJane]

The other reason newer cars/trucks can sometimes fare better is that no one usually replaces the seatbelts on older cars - they do expire like car seats do, and should be replaced after ~20 years or if they have been occupied in an accident.

 

[tvguy]

We will never own a 27 year old car or beater. Why? Safety. New cars have great safety built in. Crumple zones, front air bags, curtain airbags, side impact panels

I know a person who bragged about his old car that he kept fixing. He had an accident that put him into a coma. The other driver walked away because he had a new and safe car. He now says he wished he had bought that new(er) car he could afford.

No way to tell for sure on safety. Everything since 1974 has side impact panels. Air bags are good. But it's a Suburban, almost anything is going to bounce off it. I am NOT a fan of crumple zones. Just covered too many crashes where folks in cars that were big enough to protect them, but they had passenger compartment intrusion due to cumple zones.

 

[KalamityJane]

No way to tell for sure on safety. Everything since 1974 has side impact panels. Air bags are good. But it's a Suburban, almost anything is going to bounce off it. I am NOT a fan of crumple zones. Just covered too many crashes where folks in cars that were big enough to protect them, but they had passenger compartment intrusion due to cumple zones.

Do you know when they started introducing crumple zones? I'm curious. We have a '99 Tahoe and a '98 Silverado and I love that era of Chevy.

 

[tvguy]

My car is 14 years old, and mostly still doing great (did replace a very expensive timing belt around the 10 year mark). But I have a "if it costs more than $600 to repair, get a new car" mantra now. It's old enough that I can't put TOO much more money into it.

$600 isn't even a set of tires these days. I think I have been heavily influenced by working for companies that are cheap, and run fleets of cars. The key is the lowest cost per mile, and the fleet managers don't even blink at spending money to replace a transmission or engine. Collision damage exceeding the value of the cars is just about the only thing that they won't spend money on.

The other thing I look at is how much the tax, and depreciation will be on a replacement car. A typical car today sells for at least $25,000, so that is $2,000 in tax and about $8,000 in value that vaporizes the minute I drive it off the lot. Never replaced an engine yet, but $2,000 for a new transmission that will go another 100,000 miles is alot less than $10,000

 

[prettypatchesmsu]

Long-time lurker, first time poster... To our family its all about balance. Both my wife and I lost our parents very early and shockingly no one mentioned how great at keeping a budget they were or how they admired them for keeping cars 10+ years at their funerals. What struck me was the number of people that kinda chuckled and told me a story about a night out with my Dad or a fishing trip they took. When I die I want to ensure that I lived my life to the fullest - That I got to see everything I possibly could. I want my kids to be taken care of, but I also don’t want to be eating ramen so I can pad their inheritance. We have a very healthy retirement account but honestly I don’t live for tomorrow. I could be hit by a bus on the way to lunch.

This one hit me hard as I have recently seen the truth of this. I've been previously focused on trying to have a good retirement etc even though I'm only 39. Balancing needs of today with a lot of planning for the future. Now my opinion on this has totally changed. Not two weeks ago we had the funeral for my Sister-in-law, she died of cancer, she was 43. Diagnosed at stage 4 when she turned 40, fought for 3 hard long years. We were really close, and my husband and her were best friends. So to say it has been hard is an understatement.

So now I believe, be responsible, still plan for the future, but don't focus on it being everything. Enjoy now, plan for something soon to enjoy. It might be all you get. We are saving for our next trip to Disney, and yes there are things we should probably put before that. We have a 97 Buick that we will replace when it has a problem that is too expensive to fix for what the car's worth. But Disney is our happy place, we enjoy it too much truthfully. But we are blessed to have been able to go the times we have, and I don't want to die regretting not doing more of what we loved because we were waiting for the tomorrow that never came.

 

[tvguy]

Do you know when they started introducing crumple zones? I'm curious. We have a '99 Tahoe and a '98 Silverado and I love that era of Chevy.

Those are new enough to have crumple zones. Chevy introduced crumple zones in pickups with the 1988 body redesign, and the 1991 redesign of the Blazer (which was what the Tahoe was called then)
Cars had crumple zones far earlier, there was debate on trucks since because of their size, they would protect their occupants without the crumple zones.

 

[AquaDame]

Your beater is 10 years newer than my family car which I bought new.

I bought mine in 2007 when it was already 10 years old for 3 grand. Does that help vs. an older car bought new?

 

[KalamityJane]

Those are new enough to have crumple zones. Chevy introduced crumple zones in pickups with the 1988 body redesign, and the 1991 redesign of the Blazer (which was what the Tahoe was called then)
Cars had crumple zones far earlier, there was debate on trucks since because of their size, they would protect their occupants without the crumple zones.

Hrm. Well, it's probably a good thing we rearface the kiddos to the max and harness to the max as well. Means their heads are furthest away from the front and rear points of impact.

 

[tvguy]

The other reason newer cars/trucks can sometimes fare better is that no one usually replaces the seatbelts on older cars - they do expire like car seats do, and should be replaced after ~20 years or if they have been occupied in an accident.

Never heard of a seatbelt expiring, and everything I can find with a quick Google search says seatbelts only need to be replaced if they are damaged or have been involved in accident.

I have replaced one seatbelt in my 1987, and I can tell you the only source is a junk yard. There are no OEM seatbelts out there.